Tài liệu Figure Drawing Without A Model - Character and Expression doc

Variations in physique and facial appearance occur in quite specific ways, and so individuals tend to conform to recognizable physical and facial types — albeit a very wide range of them

CHARACTER

"AND EXPRESSION

So far in this book we have been dealing almost exclusively with

a hypothetical ‘average’ figure We have studied its structure and proportions, its posture and movement, and only briefly mentioned

in passing the very evident differences which occur between one

individual and another

All human populations show a wide variety of physical struc- ture and proportions, and of facial features But this does not mean that, in drawing the human figure, we can carelessly perpetrate distortions and inaccuracies which can then be con- veniently explained away as the unremarkable anatomical pe- culiarities one should expect to find in any single human being Variations in physique and facial appearance occur in quite specific ways, and so individuals tend to conform to recognizable physical and facial types — albeit a very wide range of them Down the centuries, scores of scientific and (mainly) pseudoscientific treatises have been put forward as rational studies of human types These have commonly claimed that character and fortune may be divined in the form and features of face or hand, and the lines thereon, or in the specifics of body

shape and proportion Most have now been justifiably forgotten

In this chapter we shall look at the ways in which individuals differ from one another in appearance, an understanding of which

> will enable us to imbue our drawings with character

The Face

The playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) attributed the launching of a thousand ships to Helen of Troy’s face and, although it seems unlikely that that portion of her anatomy was alone responsible for so much dockyard activity, few would deny the singular importance of the face in distinguishing one person from another

If presented with a few portrait photographs, almost anyone can be prevailed upon to give an opinion about the personality of each one, and these will show a remarkable consensus if the experiment is repeated a number of times

Considering that we all make such judgements continually, we might expect that it should be possible to compile a reliable index

of facial features and the precise character traits they portray Since antiquity many theorists have attempted to classify this perceived relationship between the human face and the mind behind it These varied from pronouncements concerning low

105

FIGURE DRAWING WITHOUT A MODEL

Above: From J C Lavater'’s

Physiognomische Fragmente:

1, ‘Fine Feeling’; 2, ‘Circumspec-

tion’; 3 and 4, ‘l have hitherto seen

but few countenances in which so

much power, and goodness,

fortitude and condescension were

combined.’

Below: Facial profiles - convex,

concave and upright - from De

Humana Physiognomina (1847)

foreheads and large noses to lists of features and their psycho- logical meaning The most durable example is to be found in the work of the Swiss physiognomist Johann Caspar Lavater (1741- 1801) Following the general trend of 18th-century scientific thinking towards formalized systems of knowledge, he published,

in the form of his Physiognomische Fragmente (1775-8) an ex- tensive collection of studies of widely varying faces, mainly in silhouette, with measurements of facial slope, forehead height, jaw prominence and so on, prefaced and liberally interspersed with wordy and scornful diatribes against all who questioned the veracity of his ‘science’ Ultimately, of course, his conclusions proved to be based on almost entirely subjective criteria, coupled whenever possible with prior knowledge of his subjects’ characters, and so even this otherwise creditable attempt to rationalize a fundamental process to which we all sometimes subscribe fell into disrepute

All jobbing actors will tell you that the range of dramatic character parts they are offered is limited by their physical appearance, and that the roles within that range may have little

in common with their own personality

Everyone, itseems, makes judgements based on appearance, but no proof exists that they have any basis in truth Indeed, modern studies have shown that the factors on which we base such character judgements are, at best, dubious, and at worst, simply false Almost anyone will find it surprising that Dr Johnson was described by one contemporary observer as having a face

‘with the aspect of an idiot, without the faintest ray of sense gleaming from any feature’; and one of the most capacious intellects of the Northern Renaissance, the scholar Erasmus

(1466-1536), had a cranium so tiny that throughout his adult life,

to make his head look normal, he wore a specially constructed wig and a large biretta hat which he never took off in public

And yet what prejudices we have in this regard are continually reinforced by what we see in movies and on television or read about in novels In the entertainment media, villains continue to

be beetle-browed and ugly, heroes square-jawed and handsome, heroines beautiful, despite strikingly convincing proof that this is

rarely the case in real life

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iden

Much has been said and written about psychological insight in

portrait painting, and this, | think, provides a key The sensitivity

of your drawings of faces can convey a very great deal Sadly,

though, this is something that cannot be taught The quality of

your own perceptions and artistic skill will determine your success

regarding the drawing of character

What follows is an explanation of the structural factors which

determine the uniqueness of every face

Race

Of the factors which govern the enormous variety to be found in

the human face, most are hereditary The most obvious heredi-

tary factor is race

The definitive statement on race — drafted by an international

team of scientists, and published by UNICEF in 1963 — states:

‘Scientists are generally agreed that all men living today belong

to a single species, Homo sapiens, and are derived from a

common stock.’ Widely dispersed and isolated groups developed,

over a protracted period, the ethnic characteristics we know today

in response to climatic and other environmental conditions

Opinions differ regarding the number of different major ethnic

groups now extant, but according to many classificatory schemes

there are seven: Amerindian, Polynesian, Australasian, Oriental,

Indian, Caucasian and African Within each of these groups there

are, of course, further subdivisions

Two groups dominate numerically: Caucasoids and Orientals

together account for 92 per cent of the world’s population

But, while ethnic contrasts may be distinctive, the similarities

between ethnic groups are far greater than the differences Two

individuals from two separate ethnic groups may be remarkably

similar in facial appearance, whereas the contrast in appearance

between, say, two Caucasians may be very much more pro-

nounced Within all ethnic groups a wide variation in appearance

is evident

CHARACTER AND EXPRESSION

The illustrations on this page show how remarkably small a factor race

is in determining the unique individuality of a face

107

FIGURE DRAWING WITHOUT A MODEL

CEPHALIC INDEX

DOLICHOCEPHALIC

BRACHYCEPHALIC

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BRACHYCEPHALIC

Facial Structure

According to the Cephalic Index used by anthropologists to categorize head shapes, there are two extremes:

* dolichocephalic, or long and narrow

* brachycephalic, or short and wide The intermediate type, mesocephalic, shows characteristics of both these extreme types

If you imagine a face cast onto an inflated balloon, the act of squashing the balloon as shown in the illustration will cause the face to become vertically longer and the features to be thrust forward As the distance between the eyes becomes narrower, the nose, in order to retain the same airway capacity, must protrude further forward This gives the distinctive convex profile

of the dolichocephalic type If the balloon is instead stretched widthways, the distinctive flatter profile of the brachycephalic type becomes evident

To explain facial structure, it is convenient to divide the face into three regions:

¢ the cranium

* the maxilla, or midface region

* the mandible, or lower jaw Because the complex of bones which makes up the midfacial region is attached to the base of the cranium, the cranial floor is the template that establishes the dimensions of the face If the cranium is long and narrow (dolichocephalic) the face beneath it will be correspondingly narrow; by contrast, if the cranium is brachycephalic the face will be short and broad with a flatter profile We can see, therefore, that the distinctive divergent facial

CRANIUM

MAXILLA

MANDIBLE

patterns emerge largely because of the shape of the cranium

Of course, the shapes of most crania will fall somewhere in

between these two extremes, with some (mesocephalic) skulls

showing a mixture of characteristics from both extremes

As forward growth occurs in the cranial and midfacial regions,

the mandible, hinged as it is well back near the ear, has to grow

downwards (to accommodate the teeth) and outwards to keep

pace, so that the upper and lower teeth remain compatible — see

diagram 1

If the mandible does not grow forward enough, the front teeth

in the lower jaw will not meet those in the upper for the purpose

of biting — see diagram 2 This inadequacy of the lower jaw can

cause other problems, too, because there is a need to make an

airtight seal with the lips when swallowing If this can only occur

by pressing the lower lip against the inside of the upper front teeth

(see diagram 3), the resulting persistent pressure can cause

them to protrude outwards

Excessive forward growth of the mandible can also occur (see

diagram 4), resulting in an underslung jaw and a similar difficulty

in biting

The illustrations on these two pages are derived from the work

of D H Enlow in Facial Growth and B H Broadbent Sr,

B H Broadbent Jr and W H Golden in

Bolton Standards of Dentofacial Developmental Growth

CHARACTER AND EXPRESSION

COMPARISON OF

BABYS SKULL WITH

AbULT SKULL

DIAGRAM 4

DIAGRAM 2

UPPER FRONT TEETH FORCED OUTWARDS BY

109

FIGURE DRAWING WITHOUT A MODEL

110

Soft Tissue

Underlying the skin and overlying the muscles of the face is a layer of subcutaneous fat Although this is of fairly even thickness over most of the face, there are a number of important cushions

of fat which have a profound effect on its surface form

In the faces of babies there are always ‘sucking pads’ situated between the masseter and buccinator muscles of the cheek These act as an aid to suckling, and give the infant face its typical

‘chubbiness’ They vanish in later infancy, and pockets of fat begin to form which modify and augment the bone-and-muscle form of the face

In youth, all body fat is smooth and firm and these pockets merge subtly into one another and into the overall smooth contours of the cheeks and jaw By the onset of early middle-age

they have begun to soften, and they become progressively more

clearly defined as separate individual fat deposits

In the very few investigations into the peculiarities of the human face that have been published, | have found no mention of these

as significant factors in differentiating one face from another, so

| shall do the following exposition the dubious honour of calling it the Tiner System of Facial Differentiation

On most faces, a cushion of adipose tissue forms on the upper

lateral edges of the mouth sphincter muscles This adds a small

amount of bulk to the front of the face from the sides of the nose downwards to the sides of the mouth The area it covers varies a little; its general placing is labelled 1 on the diagram These cushions soften as one gets older, and contribute to the forming

of the familiar ‘smile creases’ known to beauticians as naso-labial lines For this reason, | shall designate these fat cushions the naso-labial cushions If large they give an ‘apple-cheeked’ ap- pearance to the face in youth and, with advancing age, gradually become ‘jowls’ (examples A)

These naso-labial fat-pockets sometimes extend far enough to merge with another pair, labelled 2 on the diagram Although some faces show no sign of these at all, others may show a very definite plumpness here (examples B) Continuing with the Latinized nomenclature, I'll call these the /atera/cushions In later middle-age these, too, contribute to ‘jowliness’ in overweight people

The third location for a fat-pad is the most common Almost every face shows some evidence of flesh on the front of the chin (3) This is termed the mental cushion (from the Latin menta, meaning ‘chin’) It sometimes shows a distinct cleft or dimple, which may or may not reflect a small central groove in the jutting lower edge of the jawbone With the softening and sagging of middle-age, this cushion usually droops down to form the com- mon double-chin

The fourth fat-cushion is the least common, and tends to be

associated mainly — though not exclusively — with obesity It is

situated beneath the jaw, between the throat and the chin, and so

| shall call it the submental cushion (4) When evident in young

people, it contributes a roundness to the face, and in old,

overweight people can cause the throat to be entirely obscured;

in which case it may show signs of a central groove (examples C)

We may also refer to the ‘bags’ under the eyes as another pair

of fat-cushions These suborbital fat-cushions are, once again,

not evident on every face

All these soft fat deposits are attached firmly to the skin and

move when the skin moves They behave rather like soft, water-

filled sacs, and so, when the muscles beneath them shorten, as

in, Say, smiling, they are squeezed and bulge out In this way, a

face with large fat-cushions is changed quite considerably in

shape Examples D, showing the fleshy-faced old man, illustrate

this clearly At the sides of the face, the cheekbones (zygomatic

bones) have no fat-cushions on them, and so remain firm and

unmoved, while the jowls not only move but also change shape

In doing so they bulge up under the eyes, which are narrowed into

a crescent-like shape as the suborbital cushions are pressed

upwards

In drawing facial movement, you obviously need to understand

the ways in which the face’s shape changes, and this means that

you have to know which parts of the face have firm cartilage or

bone just below the surface and which have soft movable tissue

Knowing the location of the fat-cushions on a face is the only way

to ensure that you retain a likeness when drawing the same face

wearing different expressions

EXAMPLES D

CHARACTER AND EXPRESSION

EIGURE DRAWING WITHOUT A MODEL

Facial Expression

The musculature of the face is basically quite simple, although there are several layers of muscles which allow very subtle movements of the facial tissue, and thereby facilitate facial expression These muscles are attached at one end to bone and

at the other to the skin and its concomitant subcutaneous flesh Pursing and pouting of the lips, opening and closing of the eyelids, etc., are governed by the sphincter-type muscles around the mouth and eyes

Agreat many learned works concerning human facial expression have been published during the past 300 years, the most notable being Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1873) by

Charles Darwin (1809-1882), in which he concludes that the

manner in which human beings show their emotions is further proof of his theory of evolution Of alittle more interest to the artist

is the work of the French anatomist Guillaume Duchenne (1806- 1875), who attempted to isolate the expressive function of each

of the facial muscles; however, most of the time several muscle groups work in combination to achieve each of the wide range of subtle facial expressions

Opposite, top: Facial expressions Constant observation, coupled with an understanding of bone are achieved by movements of the structure and surface soft tissue, is the key to understanding

soft facial tissue facial expression

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Over the years, the soft, resilient, firm skin of the child becomes

replaced by the crinkled, limp and blemished skin of old age The

Subcutaneous fat layer immediately beneath the skin becomes

thinner and the facial flesh of the cheeks and chin sags over the

bottom edge of the mandible, forming the distinctive drooping

jowls and double-chin of the elderly The fat-cushions behave, in

later life, like loose, water-filled bags, and become more distinctly

separated from one another and from the overall flesh layer under

the skin

The nasolabial furrow deepens as a consequence, and facial

lines and wrinkles develop in specific and characteristic loca-

tions These are illustrated here; they include ‘crow’s feet’ at the

outer corners of the eyes, horizontal lines on the forehead,

vertical corrugations on the bridge of the nose between the eyes,

and vertical creases along the upper lip All the fat-cushions listed

earlier become increasingly well defined as separate topographi-

cal features by creases at their inner and lower edges

The skin under the chin and on the front of the throat, with its

associated flesh, sags Two factors cause the tightening of this

area: the natural wearing down or loss of the teeth brings the jaws

closer together, so that the chin juts forward more, and the

increased forward curvature of the spine between the

shoulderblades throws the head forward and down, so that the

neck vertebrae have to adopt a greater compensating backward

curve These two factors cause a tightening of the skin under the

chin

FIGURE DRAWING WITHOUT A MODEL

Body Types

Although Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) made a number of carefully measured studies of differently proportioned men and women in the early 16th century, he appears to have found no particular pattern to the range of differences he discovered Long before, the Greek physician Hippocrates (460-377BC) had recognized only two distinct kinds of human body:

* the phthisic habitus, or tall, thin physique

* the apoplectic habitus, or short, thick physique

It was evident to later investigators that this did not cover the whole range, and so this division was expanded into three, four and more by various authorities in more recent times, with the introduction of the notion of a ‘mixed’ type by the Italian anatomist

Viola But not until the present century, when investigation of the

variety of human body types was undertaken as part of the study

of physical anthropology, was a system devised which has anything substantial to offer us here

It was in the late 1930s that the US psychologist William Sheldon devised the modern system of categorizing body-types known as somatotyping Sheldon identified three basic types of human physique: endomorphic, mesomorphic and ectomorphic

In simplest terms, they may be thought of as the fat (endomorph),

the muscular (mesomorph) and the bony (ectomorph), although the differences are far from being as superficial as these descrip- tions may suggest: the total body structure is distinctive in each

of the three types The illustrations on the left show definitive examples of each of these three distinct types Height is not significant in this system; each body type can occur throughout the normal human height range